WHAT IS DEFRAG?

When Defrag started ten years ago in 2007, cloud computing was in its infancy, APIs were little known outside of a few engineers, and the Internet of Things, drones and robotics were the things of science fiction.

As we move toward the 10th anniversary edition of Defrag, we’re returning to our roots: developers. With sessions grounded in APIs, DevOps, the cloud, IoT and analytics, we’ll continue to expand on the themes emerging around the intersection of technology with society, government, education, healthcare and commerce.

Defrag’s intimacy, careful curation, and focus on providing an unparalleled attendee experience, offer a one-of-a-kind opportunity to gather together, make valuable connections, and inspire each other with insight, foresight and new learnings.

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2016 SPONSORS.

2016 PLATINUM SPONSORS

2016 COPPER SPONSORS

2016 BRONZE SPONSORS

2016 ADDITIONAL SPONSORS

LOCATION.

Defrag will be held at the beautiful Omni Interlocken Resort
in Denver (Broomfield), Colorado on Nov 16th-17th, 2016.

The Four-Diamond, award-winning Omni Interlocken Resort welcomes you to a retreat into modern luxury. Nestled against the backdrop of the Rocky Mountains, this year-round Colorado resort near Denver offers a wealth of on-site pleasures.

Golfers will love our challenging 27-hole championship golf course, ranked Third Best Course in the Rocky Mountain region by Golf Magazine (April 2008 edition), with its striking scenery and more than 400 feet of elevation changes. Or escape into a sanctuary of relaxation in Mokara Spa or our two outdoor pools and whirlpool and you will discover how even the smallest touches define first-class luxury.

The Omni Interlocken Resort’s 390 deluxe accommodations and suites are elegantly appointed and full of modern amenities. With its stunning panoramic views of the mountains or valley, unmatched luxuries and the essence of snow-capped mountain tranquility, the Omni Interlocken Resort is sure to sweep you off your feet.

2016 AGENDA.

BLOG.

Update: I’m extremely pleased to announce that both Salesforce and Brad Feld are sponsoring several dozen diversity scholarships for this year’s Defrag. For all of the talk about fostering diversity in tech circles, getting a technology vendor to actually step up and commit to sponsoring a diversity scholarship is *incredibly* hard (99% “don’t have budget for that”). To their credit, Salesforce has been supporting our diversity scholarships for several years, and we’re overjoyed to have them back again this year. Brad is joining them (via his charitable foundation) because he is one of the truly good people in technology. So, thank you to both of them!

Please spread the word and urge folks that you know to apply!

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We’ve been running a diversity/inclusion scholarship are our conferences for several years now, and it’s something that we’re quite proud of being able to do.

We’re once again able to offer a limited number of diversity scholarships for this year’s Defrag. To qualify, you simply need to be one of the under-represented communities in tech. The scholarship is a free admission to the conference (all sessions, breaks, meals, receptions, etc). It does not include travel or hotel expenses.

To apply, simply send me an email (enorlin AT mac.com), and give me one paragraph on why you’d like to attend Defrag.

In addition to the scholarships, I’d like to highlight two special presentations occurring at this year’s show. The first is from Kate Hirschfeld, a courageous 14 year old that will share a story of supporting diversity in the face of adversity. The second is Charles Ashley, who will be sharing tales of teaching coding classes on native american reservations. I expect that they’ll both be the kind of inspiring talks that will have people talking long after Defrag ends.

As we enter mid-September, Defrag’s 10th Anniversary edition is coming together. You can always find the latest version of the agenda here, but it might be helpful to point out some of the keynotes:

Tim Wagner, one of the moving forces behind AWS Lambda, will be talking “Going Serverless.”

Paul Kedrosky will conclude his now semi-famous “ladders” talk from a past Defrag.

Lorinda Brandon will be addressing developer marketing.

Brendan Burns will be talking about the state of PaaS.

Maggie Fox will let us know how to “get shit done.”

Kate Hirschfeld will be bringing her incredibly inspiring story of diversity to the stage (she’s 14).

Charles Ashley will blow you away with what he’s doing around coding camps and Native American Reservations.

Ingrid Alongi will address going from developer to founder.

Kin Lane will make a triumphant API-driven return to the stage

John Wilbanks joins us once again to talk health-tech.

And that’s not even all of the keynotes. Beyond that, we have amazing breakouts around AI, IoT, nodeJS, location-aware tech, kubernetes, rolling out a bare-metal project, and so very much more. We’ll finalize the agenda by mid to late October, but this current version should give you a pretty good idea of where we’re headed.

If you’ve never been to Defrag, there’s a reason that we’ve lasted 10 years as a tech conference. And, if you’re a member of an under-represented group in technology – stay tuned — as we’ll be rolling out our diversity scholarships next week!

Defrag is dedicated to providing a harassment-free conference experience for everyone, regardless of gender, gender identity and expression, sexual orientation, disability, physical appearance, body size, race, or religion. We do not tolerate harassment of conference participants in any form. Sexual language and imagery is not appropriate for any conference venue, including talks. Conference participants violating these rules may be sanctioned or expelled from the conference without a refund, at the discretion of the conference organizers.

Exhibitors and Sponsors are also subject to the anti-harassment policy. In particular, exhibitors should not use sexualized images, activities, or other material. Booth staff should not use sexualized clothing/uniforms/costumes, or otherwise create a sexualized environment.

If a participant engages in harassing behavior, the conference organizers may take any action they deem appropriate, including warning the offender or expulsion from the conference with no refund. If you are being harassed, notice that someone else is being harassed, or have any other concerns, please contact a member of conference staff immediately. Conference staff can be identified by their “STAFF” t-shirts.

We expect participants to follow these rules at all conference venues and conference-related social events.

This year, Defrag turns 10 years old. That’s a long-time in the world of tech conferences — very few tech conferences have ever lasted that long (PC Forum, OScon, Interop, etc), so we’re extremely grateful for the community that has formed around the themes we’ve explored at Defrag.

Over the years, those themes have covered everything from “enterprise 2.0,” to APIs to robots to drones to IoT to the intersection of tech and everything (government, medicine, education, manufacturing, etc). So, as I begin to dig in on this year’s agenda, I’ve been thinking a lot about where to take us for the 10 year anniversary.

At the end of the day, everything we’ve explored has come down to developers, and that’s precisely where I’d like to ground this year’s show (while we still explore some more “outside of the box” topics at the keynote level). So, if you’ve got a presentation around containers, serverless architectures, IoT, analytics, DevOps, or really anything that is developer-related, please send them my way for consideration (enorlin AT mac.com).

We won’t have a “speaker submission deadline” per se, as we’ve always run our agenda building as a “we fill as we fill” exercise. All of which is to say that the sooner you submit, the better.

And if you’d just like to attend (and see why we’ve been around for a decade), we’ve got special 10 year pricing right now, where you can get into to Defrag for just $795. Join us!

ABOUT US

Eric Norlin

Advisor

Eric Norlin began organizing technology conferences in 1999. In 2002, he became an owner and organizer of Digital ID World, which was acquired by IDG via a joint venture in 2005. More recently, he founded SaaScon (Software as a Services conference) in conjunction with IDG World Expo. He also currently runs the successful Defrag Conference. Eric’s foray into technology began when his father brought home a Commodore 64, evolved into work with the National Security Agency, and transitioned into roles running content for technology conferences, writing articles for technology publications and serving as a vice president of marketing at an identity technology startup (Ping Identity). Eric’s work has been featured in The Wall Street Journal, BusinessWeek, Inc. Magazine, CNet and NetworkWorld.

Brad Feld

Advisor

Brad Feld is a Managing Director at Foundry Group and Mobius Venture Capital. Prior to Mobius, Brad founded Feld Technologies, which was sold to AmeriData Technologies in 1993, where he became Chief Technology Officer. Brad currently serves on the boards of a number of private companies, including ClickCaster, ePartners, FeedBurner, Gold Systems, Judy’s Book, Lijit, Me.dium, NewsGator, Rally Software, and StillSecure. In addition, he is on the board of The National Center for Women & Information Technology, The Community Foundation Serving Boulder County, and The Colorado Conservation Trust. Brad has previously been a member of the board of directors of the Young Entrepreneurs Organization and founded the Boston and Colorado chapters. He holds Bachelor of Science and Master of Science degrees in Management Science from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.